Chaotic scenes unfolded at Azim Premji University on Tuesday, February 24, after members of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) – the student wing of the RSS, barged into the campus and vandalised property over an event on state violence in Kashmir. Later in the evening, the police removed the ABVP members from the campus and stayed on to prevent any further incidents. 

Mamata (name changed), a masters student at APU, told TNM that a group of over 20 ABVP members, who are not part of the campus, barged into the APU campus in Sarjapura around 6.30 pm. 

The trigger for the ABVP barging into the APU campus was an event organised by a student club. Spark APU Reading Circle had organised an event at 6pm to discuss the alleged mass rape of Kashmiri women in Kunan Poshpora village in Kupwara district by Indian armed forces on February 23, 1991. The day of the alleged rapes is observed as Kashmiri Women’s Resistance Day. 

The Indian army has denied that any such incident ever took place, but a 2013 petition in the Supreme Court resulted in a reinvestigation of the case. 

Mamata said that the reading circle organises events once a month and invites students to participate by distributing pamphlets and spreading the word on WhatsApp. 

“We don’t know how ABVP found out about it. They’re definitely not APU students. Security staff tried to stop them but they pushed past them and came inside. They raised slogans such as ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’, ‘Vande Mataram’ and called us anti-national. This is the first time something like this has happened,” Mamata said. 

ABVP members protested in a central area of the university where cultural events are usually held. They vandalised the university campus, wrote graffiti on the walls demanding that Spark Reading Circle be banned. 

Mamata alleged that the ABVP members assaulted a male undergraduate student who tried to question them, and he was taken to a hospital by a faculty member and the police, at around 7 pm. The student has since filed a complaint over the assault. 

The police removed the ABVP members from the APU campus soon after, prompting relieved cheers from onlooking students. 

“Some of the students started cheering and clapping when the police began to load the ABVP members onto a bus to take them away. At this, some of the ABVP members threw shoes at the APU students and hurled abuses,” Mamata said. 

Angered by this, many of the students lingered on, eventually gathering near the mess where they then raised slogans against the ABVP. Mamata estimated that around half the student strength at the university participated in the protest that lasted about an hour. 

“The university administration has now locked up the campus, but that’s mainly to ensure that no outsiders enter. After the police took away the ABVP members, they found two ABVP members lurking around campus. At present, the university has asked the students to go back to their hostels and is ensuring that students are safe on campus,” Mamata said. 

After the evening protests, students issued an unsigned collective statement calling the day’s events an “alarming attack on academic freedom and democratic dissent”. 

The statement alleged that the police’ inaction was “disturbing”. “Despite being present at the site, law enforcement personnel mostly remained passive spectators as the vandalism and forced entry unfolded. No immediate or visible attempt was made to prevent the mob from entering the campus or to de-escalate the situation.”

The statement demanded that prompt action be taken against the ABVP members involved in vandalism and concrete assurances to protect students, faculty, and democratic gatherings on campus.

Mamata confirmed the contents of the unsigned statement, saying that students had not yet decided on how to proceed and whether or not to reveal their names. 

Late at night, Azim Premji University released a statement saying a group of around 20 people had “forced their way into Azim Premji University campus”, shouted slogans, vandalised some of the property, and assaulted a few of the security guards and students.

The University said that when the incident was reported to the Sarjapura Police Station, the “police acted swiftly and rounded them up”.

 The statement also said, “Those who had forced their entry into our campus were protesting about an event that they claimed was going to be held on our campus. The Azim Premji University had not authorised any event of this nature. The University follows strict procedures before any event is held on campus. This event which was allegedly planned by a small group of students did not happen at all.” 

This report was republished from The News Minute as part of The News Minute-Newslaundry alliance. Read about our partnership here and become a subscriber here.